So now we need somewhere for the babies to live when they grow up. In about 3.5-4 weeks they will be outdoors all day and night. We had a couple ideas floating around about what kind of coop to build.

Initially we purchased an old shipping crate locally from kijiji. Everything seemed all well and good …..until we got there…..The crate was made of pretty thin plywood…..and it was teeming with spiders and dirt. I could see the doubt in his eyes, but me being an optimistic, convinced my husband it would work. So we loaded it up and brought it home. We got this for $20.00 plus while we were there we picked up 4 concrete post holders to put the 4×4’s in. (But since we brought them the hubs has decided that we aren’t going to use them)

We (and by we I mean the hubs) attached 4×4 posts that we had from a fence we took down when we moved it a few years ago. One side of the crate was bowed so we decided to remove it and make that side the door to open for cleaning.

Since we picked up the crate, I continued to spend a lot of time on kijiji looking for coops to make the hubs life easier. Well, I found a playhouse built on a skid so I called the person posting and we set up a time for Friday night. As everyone knows kijiji deals aren’t set in stone so needless to say buddy was less then reliable and we never saw if the crate would become out coop.

So today we picked up 1″x2″s, ply wood and insulation and the coop has begun to take shape.

The hubs framed the flimsy 1/4″ ply wood with 1×2’s on all four sides.

Next up is to frame out the pop door and the nesting box, cut the ply wood, install the insulation, and install the nesting box. The nesting box was a great find at Habitat for Humanity for $5.00!!!!!!! And the plywood and 1×2’s were about $50.00, putting the total coop cost to $70.00.